Punjab petrol pumps not to buy oil today

Chandigarh”: Petrol pumps in Punjab will not purchase oil on Thursday as part of nation wide protest against the oil marketing companies for not revising dealers’ margin.

“More than 3,000 fuel pumps in Punjab will observe no purchase of oil tomorrow,” Punjab Petroleum Pump Dealers Association President Sandeep Sehgal said on Wednesday.

Petroleum products dealers have been at loggerheads with the oil marketing companies over the issue of dealers’ margin.

“We have been demanding that the companies should consider other components including evaporation, minimum wages of staff etc while calculating dealers’ margin,” he said. Currently, dealers are getting Rs 1.50 per litre for diesel and Rs 2.50 per litre for petrol, said Sehgal who is also the secretary of All India Petroleum Dealers Association.

“If the oil marketing companies do not agree to our demands then we will neither buy oil nor sell fuel on November 15,” he said.

Petroleum dealers have also been demanding uniformity in rates of taxes on fuel in northern states, saying that higher taxes on petrol in Punjab was causing massive losses to them.

Ashwinder Mongia, president of Mohali Petroleum Dealers Association said, petroleum delaers have been struggling because of low sales of fuel due to high taxes on petroleum products in Punjab.